Abbot’s Kitchen — Restaurant in St Albans

I am leaving a review here as a reminder for all to be kind to our hospitality staff here in St. Albans.

It is certainly not an easy industry to work in, proved by what I witnessed today. I come to Abbots Kitchen relatively often with my son for tea and cake, and the staff are what keep me coming back. Abbots Kitchen employs several younger staff members, who are always keen to help and exceptionally friendly.

Unfortunately, one of the young women working today was left in tears and shaking like a leaf from a customer interaction. The customer, an older woman in blue, was entitled and unkind. The tone she used was disrespectful and callous, and completely unacceptable. The young lady would have been completely within her rights to ask her to leave, but she served the customer, who continued to scowl at her while she ate as an attempt to further intimidate the worker, who as I mentioned, had begun to cry.

I really feel for the young lady, and would like her to know that from my many visits to the cathedral cafe, I have observed she works hard and is always incredibly polite and smiley. She has been in my thoughts for the remainder of the afternoon.

Can I remind the people of St Albans that everyone deserves respect. Being cold and nasty towards hospitality staff who are just trying to do their job, and then staring them down while they cry, is unacceptable behaviour, and not something we should tolerate in our community.

It costs...

A very nice spot for catching up with a friend or having a drink after touring inside this stunning historical Cathedral. Sadly my experience inside this Cafe was not as delightful as I would have wanted it to be, I went inside a tad before the café actually opened, and a lady sitting enjoying a cup of coffee asked me to leave because they are not open yet. It wasn't her request that was unpleasant but her way which was rude and condescending. The café was going to be open literally in 2 minutes and the doors were already open to the public, but I felt that woman was just weird and gave me a bad vibe. I still left and came back after few minutes, I bought a coffee but I wasn't feeling comfortable...

I honestly could not believe the price of food here, a pasteis de nata (called a custard tart here) £4.50 unbelievable! I know you can’t compare with a supermarket but they are 49p in Lidl. We also ordered a scone £3.75 slightly better value but it came with less than a teaspoon of jam. I wasn’t paying and didn’t realise the price until I looked at the menu afterwards. I am truly gobsmacked. The Church of England must be truly skint. Someone needs to look at the pricing structure. And to top it off the coffee was awful, very bitter tasting, thank the lord for...